Responding to and Grading Essays:
"What Kind of Feedback Would Be Most Helpful to You?"
Types of Comments #1:
1.) Formative comments -- intended to "form" or "shape" ideas for revising the essay / intended to encourage revising the essay.
NOTE: Some writing professors, after they have graded an essay, do allow, encourage, or require further revisions of essays. However, revisions of essays are not required, expected, or allowed in this course. My philosophy is that after 3-4 weeks of working on an essay, of going through the writing process for an essay, we have had enough time for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading -- and for getting feedback on our writing (from both our peers, our professor, writing tutors, and others) during in-class peer reviews, required or self-scheduled conferences, editing sessions, etc.
2.) Summative comments -- intended to "summarize" or "conclude" ideas about the essay / intended to state the strengths and weaknesses of the essay / intended to offer reactions or responses to, or impressions of, the essay.
Types of Comments #2:
1.) The evaluation sheet with "Excellent," "Very Good," "Acceptable," or "Unacceptable" noted for each of the 12 individual elements. Click here for a sample evaluation grid.
2.) The information sheet describing what an "A paper," a "B paper," a "C paper," a "D paper," and an "F paper" look like. Click here for a sample grade description sheet.
3.) Comments at the end of the essay -- a brief paragraph noting my overall reactions, responses, and impressions.
4.) Comments at the end of the essay -- a list noting, perhaps, 2 major strengths and 2 major weaknesses of the essay.
5.) Comments in the margins of the essay -- short notes of my reactions, responses, and impressions to specific parts of the essay.
6.) Comments in the margins of the essay -- short notes of strengths and weakness at specific parts of the essay.
7.) Editing and proofreading marks -- for every page in the essay -- circles indicating word and punctuation problems and brackets indicating sentence problems (fragments, run-ons, comma splices).
8.) Editing and proofreading marks -- for one page of the essay -- circles indicating word and punctuation problems and brackets indicating sentence problems (fragments, run-ons, comma splices).